It’s well understood that our environment affects our wellbeing – dampness and noise for a start. Then there’s the studies that have been done on environmental clutter. The visual impact and the subconscious impact of too much stuff around us has been tested, and the results are in! Clutter is not good for us.
Generally the studies found that –
With less clutter around them people relax more deeply, concentrate better, feel more satisfied with their home and find it easier to eat healthily. They’re happier.
Practical Mindfulness.
Mindful decluttering is a positive experience. The act of decluttering is moving us closer to that happier environment.
You can give your busy mind sustained time to focus and reflect. You are concentrating on the worth of your belongings and nothing else. Your focus is positive. You’re making decisions that will influence your environmental well being. You are practicing mindfulness.
You are giving yourself the gift of respecting your choices, the choices that brought you to this point of decluttering and the choices you’re making now to make your space better. For you and your family. You are reinforcing your decision making skills.
You can avoid declutters regret. You have focussed your mind on true value, whatever that means to you. You are developing trust in your self and your decisions.
Being truly present when decluttering is just smart. You’re making decisions and you want to do it right. Mindfulness can be a natural part of the process.
Doing Something That’s Good For You Makes You Feel Good
Feelings of wellbeing come from behaviours and activities that we know are good for us. Visiting people who love us, eating healthy food, doing exercise that we enjoy – we get the immediate good feelings of love, positive reinforcement and endorphins but we also get an additional benefit, the knowledge that we are taking care of ourselves.
We can get the same feeling from decluttering. We get the satisfaction of improving our environment and making our home-lives easier and more efficient. We also get a positive feeling from knowing that our decluttering work is us taking care of ourselves.
Feeling good about caring for yourself is NOT selfish. You might feel good when you do things for those you love, but you probably do that far more often than you do good things for yourself. It’s supposedly “better” than doing good things for yourself.
That perspective is really unhelpful. Just because you’re being good to you, doesn’t limit the kind and loving actions and sacrifices you make on behalf of others.
So get cracking on your mindful, positive decluttering. If you have to start out by telling yourself it’s for your family, so be it. But allow yourself to ponder the effect the loving action of decluttering has on yourself.
You deserve that environment of peace and happiness and you can make it happen.
Liz.
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